Redesigning the secondary–tertiary interface: Queensland Review of Senior Assessment and Tertiary Entrance

A general conclusion of this Review is that senior secondary assessment and tertiary entrance in Queensland are in need of attention. It is more than twenty years since the current OP system was designed, and the broad features of the senior assessment system have been in place even longer. Over the past two decades, assessment and tertiary entrance processes have been the subject of ongoing modifications. Although the current processes have served Queensland well, we believe that they will be less adequate in meeting future needs and that the time has come for a redesign. Any redesign must recognise and preserve strengths of the current arrangements. The challenge is to design senior assessment and tertiary selection processes appropriate to Queensland in the twenty-first century, rather than attempt to reconstruct arrangements from the past or to adopt solutions from elsewhere. We include among the strengths of existing Queensland arrangements the use of classroom teachers' judgments of students' performances and work, and believe that this aspect of the current system must be preserved as a significant element of future assessment arrangements.